Please help, tank surging and Apex unresponsive

[Wen]

Returned from New Years party to the sound of our 280 gal’s water surging, which is unnerving. Apex fusion says all is well, diagnostics says no problem, but the surge!

In the equipment closet there are a lot of flashing indicators!

I believe the system is running on fallback and I can’t control from fusion or the apex controller.

I tried the paper clip reboot, and indicator light turns from orange to green to purple to orange.

All 3 cor20s are flashing whiteish, 2 FMMs & wxm & pm1 & ald flashing green.

what do I do?

 

[RMS18]

Unplug the system. Plug in only required items through a power strip for now if it's that much of an emergency.

 

[Wen]

The Cors are not plugged into the eb832, they are plugged into the wall.

I unplugged power to apex and replugged, no change. Cors and modules flashing. The Surging water is just too much, it’s like the gate valves are totally open. However, sump water level is normal.

 

[Bob Escher]

The Cors are not plugged into the eb832, they are plugged into the wall.

I unplugged power to apex and replugged, no change. Cors and modules flashing. The Surging water is just too much, it’s like the gate valves are totally open. However, sump water level is normal.

If there are powerheads can you turn those off. If there are gate valves on the return turn them down, you have no control over the COR’s at all

 

[Brett S]

In fusion, click on the gear icon, then click on the modules icon (circled below). It will likely show that some or all of your modules are disconnected.

This sounds like an aquabus issue. Try to start by just connecting the apex to the power bar and disconnecting everything else, then check the modules screen and see if the power bar is online. (It can take a few minutes to register after you disconnect and reconnect everything, so give it a couple of minutes before you assume it’s not working). If the power bar doesn’t come online, then try different ports and different cables until you can get it online.

Once the power bar is online, try connecting each of your modules one at a time and checking to see if they come online or if they cause everything to go offline. If you connect something and it comes online, then keep going. If it doesn’t, then again, try different cables and different ports.

Eventually you should either find a bad module, a bad cable, or a bad port, or everything may just wind up working in the end, which would indicate that there was just a bad connection somewhere and the unplugging and replugging fixed it.

 

[Brett S]

Also, once you do get things working you should go through and check the fallback settings for everything because it seems like something was configured wrong. For example, if you normally run your COR pumps at 65% but they were set to ‘FALLBACK ON” then that would run them at 100% in a fallback situation. You would want to set them to “FALLBACK 65” instead.

 

[Wen]

If there are powerheads can you turn those off. If there are gate valves on the return turn them down, you have no control over the COR’s at all

I’ve logged into fusion on my computer and it shows most things are missing or have no power. I can control nothing through apex.

It says not connected to wifi, so I dug out new Ethernet cable and plugged into different outlet...still says no wifi, but house does have working wifi.
Meanwhile everything running on fallback mode.
ugh.

 

[Wen]

In fusion, click on the gear icon, then click on the modules icon (circled below). It will likely show that some or all of your modules are disconnected.

This sounds like an aquabus issue. Try to start by just connecting the apex to the power bar and disconnecting everything else, then check the modules screen and see if the power bar is online. (It can take a few minutes to register after you disconnect and reconnect everything, so give it a couple of minutes before you assume it’s not working). If the power bar doesn’t come online, then try different ports and different cables until you can get it online.

Once the power bar is online, try connecting each of your modules one at a time and checking to see if they come online or if they cause everything to go offline. If you connect something and it comes online, then keep going. If it doesn’t, then again, try different cables and different ports.

Eventually you should either find a bad module, a bad cable, or a bad port, or everything may just wind up working in the end, which would indicate that there was just a bad connection somewhere and the unplugging and replugging fixed it.

Thank you.
Yes, all modules are not connected.
Good points. I will work through as you suggested.

 

[Wen]

Also, once you do get things working you should go through and check the fallback settings for everything because it seems like something was configured wrong. For example, if you normally run your COR pumps at 65% but they were set to ‘FALLBACK ON” then that would run them at 100% in a fallback situation. You would want to set them to “FALLBACK 65” instead.

Yes, this explains the surge.
I will check fallback configuration of Cors because I have changed the %.

 

[Wen]

 

[Brett S]

Oh, one more thing. If you have any 1link devices you’ll want to disconnect them as well and connect them one at a time with everything else. The 1link ports are just an extension of the aquabus with additional power. Its possible in some cases for a bad cable, a bad device, a bad port, or a bad connection to bring down the entire aquabus and it sounds like this is what’s happening here. So you’ll want to disconnect the 1link devices as well and include them in the troubleshooting steps to rule out or rule e devices and cables.

 

[Wen]

Yes!

 

[Brett S]

Yes!

Well, that’s a good start. You can now try connecting your other devices.

 

[Wen]

Well, that’s a good start. You can now try connecting your other devices.

@Brett S
You are an angel! Thank you so much!

I have the Cors connected and surging has ceased. Cor fallback configuration has been corrected, which will make a huge difference the next time apex loses connection.

I’m going to continue trouble shooting tomorrow. Happy New Year!

 

[Brett S]

@Brett S
You are an angel! Thank you so much!

I have the Cors connected and surging has ceased. Cor fallback configuration has been corrected, which will make a huge difference the next time apex loses connection.

I’m going to continue trouble shooting tomorrow. Happy New Year!

I’m glad to hear that you at least fixed the immediate problem. Good luck with your troubleshooting tomorrow. I actually had a similar problem a couple of months ago that I traced down to a DOS. No matter which cable or ports I used, as soon as I connected that particular DOS then all of my modules would go offline. It was out of warranty, but Neptune repaired it at a reasonable rate and it’s been working fine since.

 

[DarthSimon]

Everything ok??

 

[Wen]

Thanks for checking in.

I called it a night after disconnecting every module, electrical plug & aquabus cable, and then reconnected only apex/eb832/Cors.

This morning the pumps working as programmed.
I’m going to take this opportunity to clean up the wiring as i go. This is an unexpected big project, hahaha.

I do see the wifi disconnected 7x in 24hrs and does this look correct?
After I changed Ethernet cable and port the history shows it hasn’t disconnected and fusion is working, but ssid says no wifi connection this morning.
?

 

[DarthSimon]

If you have an Ethernet cable plugged in Wi-Fi would be off, above photo is correct. I presume your apex has an IP address right below dhcp.

 

[Wen]

If you have an Ethernet cable plugged in Wi-Fi would be off, above photo is correct. I presume your apex has an IP address right below dhcp.

It does, didn’t think I should photo it.

I’m not tech savvy at all, so apologies for my ignorance and thanks for taking the time to help.

 

[DarthSimon]

It’s fine. It would have an internal up address assigned from your router. Which wouldn’t mean much to the outside world.